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# Project Description The Tiger, Porcelain, and The Orange Carter Tam Summary Final work Carter Tam is a Canadian born multi-disciplinary artist studying fashion grad dip at CSM, they have a background in BA fine art at Chelsea. Carter specializes in designing wearable and performative pieces with emphasis in the conceptual materiality resonating with their cultural heritage. Through the wearable, Carter explores gender fluidity, diasporic identity, and digital embodiment, creating space for multiple, evolving selves Carter Tam is a Canadian born multi-disciplinary artist studying fashion grad dip at CSM, they ha... College Central Saint Martins Course Graduate Diploma Fashion Graduation year 2025 This project explores the complexities of diasporic identity through the lens of personal and cultural estrangement, particularly examining my experience as a Chinese person raised in Canada. At its heart, the work stages an imagined performative dinner—a reconciliation feast—bringing together estranged familial and cultural selves through symbolic characters representing myself and my mother. Three central motifs— the tiger , porcelain , and the orange —anchor the narrative. The tiger serves as an icon of both cultural pride and postcolonial consumption. Once hunted as a trophy and commodified within both Eastern and Western contexts, the tiger becomes a metaphor for the fragmented self: distorted by colonial desire, genetic manipulation, and digital reconstruction. It embodies the tensions of heritage—between power and vulnerability, masculinity and queerness, east and west. The performative garments, designed for a speculative postcolonial world, imagine a queer gathering where community is rebuilt through ritual. Here, the tiger’s body is reconstructed using natural fibres: English wool, Chinese silk, and bamboo —materials tied to geography and ecology. The textile work incorporates heritage craft practices such as embroidery and the cheongsam silhouette , blending traditional Chinese aesthetics with contemporary narrative design. Porcelain appears as both artifact and debris: a symbol of Chinese cultural heritage scattered through global trade and colonial extraction. Unearthed shards from the Thames become metaphors for fragmentation and the piecing together of lost histories—fragments gathered not for display, but for communion . The orange functions as an ancestral offering, echoing the tiger’s iconic hue while evoking themes of consumption, ritual, and circularity. It ties the narrative back to food, ceremony, and community—a shared language across cultures and generations. Ultimately, this work navigates diasporic memory, queer identity, and cultural inheritance. It is a gesture toward healing and reassembly—a postcolonial, post-family communion where brokenness is acknowledged, and beauty is found in the gathering. Final work Research and process Share this project This project explores the complexities of diasporic identity through the lens of personal and cultural estrangement, particularly examining my experience as a Chinese person raised in Canada. At its heart, the work stages an imagined performative dinner—a reconciliation feast—... A link to this page has been added to your clipboard Browse related work Access, Ability & Inclusivity Activism Being Human Beyond Human Body Craft & Process Digital Experiences Futures Gender Materiality Social Justice Story & Myth Identity Realities Play Nature & Environment Politics Histories Conflict & Its Effects Community Aesthetics
# Links ## Official page - https://ualshowcase.arts.ac.uk/project/626815/cover ## External - https://www.instagram.com/ Cartertam - https://www.cartertam.com - tel:07894496279 - mailto:cartertam1023@gmail.com - https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fualshowcase.arts.ac.uk%2Fproject%2F626815%2Fcover&text=The+Tiger%2C+Porcelain%2C+and+The+Orange - https://pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fualshowcase.arts.ac.uk%2Fproject%2F626815%2Fcover&media=https%3A%2F%2Fportfolio-tools.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2025%2F05%2F19084929%2Ffinal-pokemon-shoot-1.jpg&description=The+Tiger%2C+Porcelain%2C+and+The+Orange